Rebalancing the power of the executive

Everyone is talking about political reform in Bangladesh, reform of not just the political parties, but also the political system itself. Specifically, since Gen Moeen called for it a few months ago, a rebalancing of the powers of the Prime Minister and the President has been a major subject of speculation. Lately, a few ‘reformist’ politicians like Suranjit Sengupta have asked for such rebalancing. Some of my fellow bloggers are not convinced by the reformists’ bona fide or the effectiveness of their proposals (example, here, here and here). And then there is also the very important fact that any such rebalancing of the executive powers will require constitutional amendments, and at the very least, our experience with constitutional amendments brought forward by unelected governments under cover of extra-constitutional rule is not a very happy one.